Sexual Assault & Violence Intervention Services of Halton (SAVIS)

Sexual Assault & Violence Intervention Services of Halton (SAVIS) SAVIS provides free support to anyone who has experienced sexual violence, or is a supporter of a sur

Today, we honour National Speak Up for Victims of Sexual Abuse Day and Persons Day - two powerful reminders that using o...
10/18/2025

Today, we honour National Speak Up for Victims of Sexual Abuse Day and Persons Day - two powerful reminders that using our voices can spark change. 💬💜

Speaking up against sexual violence takes courage. It breaks silence, challenges stigma, and helps survivors feel seen, supported, and believed.

At the same time, Persons Day reminds us of the ongoing fight for gender equality - a fight rooted in the courage of those who refused to be silenced.

When we speak up, we honour survivors, advocate for justice, and carry forward the legacy of those who paved the way for equality. Together, we create safer, more inclusive communities for all. 💫

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National Day for Truth and ReconciliationToday we honour the children, Survivors, and communities impacted by residentia...
09/30/2025

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Today we honour the children, Survivors, and communities impacted by residential schools. 🧡

Take time to learn, listen, and reflect — and remember, reconciliation is a commitment every day, not just today.

Swipe to find out 3 things you can do to support this day!

National Day for Truth and ReconciliationToday we pause as a Nation to remember.For over a century, more than 150,000 Fi...
09/30/2025

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Today we pause as a Nation to remember.

For over a century, more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children were taken from their families and placed in residential schools and day schools across this land. Many never came home. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has documented over 4,100 confirmed deaths, with thousands more children still unaccounted for, their resting places unmarked, their stories silenced. Families were left to grieve without answers. Communities continue to live with the absence of children stolen away.

The trauma was not confined to residential schools alone. Day schools operated in hundreds of communities, often just as destructive, with children forced to attend during the day and return home at night carrying shame, punishment, and silence.

The legacy of these schools is a wound in the spirit of this country. Survivors have carried the pain into their families and communities, alongside resilience, testimony, and courage. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission gave voice to these stories, issuing 94 Calls to Action — yet so many remain unfulfilled.

Orange Shirt Day, which began with the testimony of Phyllis Webstad, honours the children who survived and those who never returned. Phyllis shared how her new orange shirt was taken from her on her first day at a residential school in Williams Lake, BC. Today, we wear orange to say: Remember the children.. Honour them, their families, and the generations still healing.

We remember. We mourn. We carry.

As we close this month of remembrance, we call upon the Ancestors to bless the Survivors and their descendants. We call upon the Elders, the Grandmothers and Grandfathers to guide us in ceremony and truth. We call upon the children yet to come to inherit a world where their languages, songs, and ceremonies will never again be stripped away.

The path of reconciliation is not complete. But today, with open hearts, we commit again: to listen, to learn, to act, and to walk together in truth.

We carry their memory.
We seek justice through truth.
We honour the Survivors.

At SAVIS, we are proud to support Grandmother’s Voice and their work in honouring Indigenous children, uplifting Survivors, and carrying forward truth and reconciliation. To see the entire "Remember the Children" campaign, visit Grandmother's Voice on social media Grandmother's Voice

NunavutThe system of residential hostels in Nunavut was vast, stretching even into the most remote reaches of the Arctic...
09/29/2025

Nunavut

The system of residential hostels in Nunavut was vast, stretching even into the most remote reaches of the Arctic. Children were moved far from home, sometimes hundreds of kilometres away, and placed in dormitories where their culture was forbidden. The pain of separation rippled across entire communities.

At Spence Bay (now Taloyoak), Inuit children were brought into a hostel that stripped away their connections to Elders and community life. In Hall Beach, another hostel enforced strict rules of behaviour and language, punishing children for speaking Inuktitut.Repulse Bay (now Naujaat) became another place where children faced both isolation and assimilation, far removed from the land that had always sustained their people. At Fort Churchill in northern Manitoba — though outside present-day Nunavut, many Inuit children were sent there — the scale of disconnection was immense, as children from across the Arctic were gathered into one massive institution.

These places remind us that the project of residential schools was not about education — it was about erasure. But the resilience of Inuit people shines through, as families rebuild what was taken, and children grow today with language and culture being reclaimed.

We carry their memory.
We seek justice through truth.
And we commit to rebuilding the languages, songs, and ceremonies once stolen.

At SAVIS, we are proud to support Grandmother’s Voice and their work in honouring Indigenous children, uplifting Survivors, and carrying forward truth and reconciliation. To see the entire "Remember the Children" campaign, visit Grandmother's Voice on social media Grandmother's Voice


Local MPP Stephen Crawford met with the Board and Staff of SAVIS of Halton to recognize the impact of three grants from ...
09/28/2025

Local MPP Stephen Crawford met with the Board and Staff of SAVIS of Halton to recognize the impact of three grants from the provincial government’s Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF), aimed at supporting survivors of gender-based violence across the Halton region.

This funding strengthens gender-based violence support services across Halton, helping us continue providing essential programs, resources, and advocacy for survivors. 💜

Together, we’re building safer and more supportive communities.

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Nunavut In the vast expanse of the Arctic, where land, ice, and sky meet in silence, Inuit children were taken from thei...
09/27/2025

Nunavut

In the vast expanse of the Arctic, where land, ice, and sky meet in silence, Inuit children were taken from their homes and placed into residential hostels. These buildings were small compared to the great institutions of the south, but their reach was just as deep. In places where families lived closely connected to the land, even a few months away meant losing vital teachings — hunting skills, language, songs, and stories.

At Chesterfield Inlet, one of the earliest hostels, children from across the Keewatin region were gathered. Survivors speak of loneliness, harsh discipline, and disconnection from their families. In Baker Lake, a federal hostel operated for decades, drawing children into its dormitories and away from the rhythms of life on the land. At Cambridge Bay, both Anglican and Roman Catholic hostels stood as reminders of competing denominations united in one purpose: assimilation. Children there faced the same punishments for speaking Inuktitut, the same loss of kinship. In Iqaluit (then Frobisher Bay), the capital of what is now Nunavut, multiple hostels ensured that Inuit children from distant communities were centralized, disciplined, and stripped of identity in the very heart of colonial administration.

These schools and hostels were not neutral spaces of learning. They were deliberate acts of disconnection. And yet, the strength of Inuit families continues to reclaim what was nearly lost.

We carry their memory.
We seek justice through truth.
And we commit to rebuilding the languages, songs, and ceremonies once stolen.

At SAVIS, we are proud to support Grandmother’s Voice and their work in honouring Indigenous children, uplifting Survivors, and carrying forward truth and reconciliation. To see the entire "Remember the Children" campaign, visit Grandmother's Voice on social media Grandmother's Voice


At the Victims & Survivors Symposium hosted by the Peel Regional Police, Silvia from SAVIS connected with Lee-Ann Bailey...
09/27/2025

At the Victims & Survivors Symposium hosted by the Peel Regional Police, Silvia from SAVIS connected with Lee-Ann Bailey, Manager of Anti-Human Trafficking Programs at EFRY Hope and Help for Women.

We listened to powerful stories from survivors and families impacted by violent crime. Their message was loud and clear: the system is failing them.

Survivors deserve more than empty promises — they deserve justice, safety, and real change.


Self-abandonment often sounds like silence, minimization, or putting everyone else before ourselves. It’s time to start ...
09/26/2025

Self-abandonment often sounds like silence, minimization, or putting everyone else before ourselves. It’s time to start honouring your own needs, too

Remember: you deserve the same care you give others.💜

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SAVIS recently held our Annual General Meeting — a powerful evening of reflection, recognition, and inspiration 💜Our AGM...
09/26/2025

SAVIS recently held our Annual General Meeting — a powerful evening of reflection, recognition, and inspiration 💜

Our AGM brought together community members, volunteers, and supporters to look back on the impact we’ve made this year and recommit to our mission of supporting survivors and ending gender-based violence.

We were honoured to hear from incredible speakers including Silvia, MPP Stephen Crawford, and survivor advocate Robin Zee!

A huge congratulations to our Volunteer Award recipients — Janet and Chris — for their dedication and heart. Your impact is felt every day! 🙌

Thank you to everyone who joined us in celebrating the work, the voices, and the people who make our mission possible.


Northwest Territories The story of the North cannot be told without naming the rivers and trails that once guided famili...
09/24/2025

Northwest Territories

The story of the North cannot be told without naming the rivers and trails that once guided families across the land. Those same rivers carried children unwillingly to residential schools, where the flow of life was interrupted. In these institutions, children who once knew freedom on the land found themselves confined to rigid schedules, harsh discipline, and separation from everything they loved.

At Fort Resolution and Hay River, schools enforced obedience and silence, cutting children off from their Dene and Métis roots. In Fort McPherson, Anglican missionaries tried to replace Gwich’in traditions with the teachings of the church. Fort Franklin’s federal hostel became a place of disconnection, where children lived apart from family and community. And at Breynat Hall, young people were housed in dormitories that embodied the state’s determination to control their futures. These schools remind us that the North was not untouched — it bore its share of loss, and its families still carry the weight.

We carry their memory.
We seek justice through truth.
And we commit to rebuilding the languages, songs, and ceremonies once stolen.

At SAVIS, we are proud to support Grandmother’s Voice and their work in honouring Indigenous children, uplifting Survivors, and carrying forward truth and reconciliation. To see the entire "Remember the Children" campaign, visit Grandmother's Voice on social media Grandmother's Voice


Yukon Beyond the better-known schools, smaller institutions in the Yukon also carried out the same devastating work of c...
09/22/2025

Yukon

Beyond the better-known schools, smaller institutions in the Yukon also carried out the same devastating work of cultural erasure. They may not be widely remembered in Canadian history books, but they left deep scars in Indigenous families that are still felt today.

St. Paul’s Hostel in Dawson City, run by the Anglican Church, confined Indigenous children in regimented dormitories, far from their homes. Here, children faced rigid discipline and were punished for speaking their language. The hostel’s very design — separating children from parents — was meant to weaken the bonds of kinship and culture.

In Whitehorse, the Baptist-run school added another layer to the network of institutions enforcing assimilation. This school, like others across the country, targeted Indigenous children with teachings that denigrated their culture while forcing them to adopt foreign religious practices. The school operated with the same cold logic: take children away, isolate them, and attempt to make them forget who they were.

Though these schools have long since closed, Survivors and their families continue to carry the pain. The Yukon’s First Nations have led powerful efforts to reclaim languages, ceremonies, and connections to land — ensuring that the truths of what happened in these institutions are never silenced.

We carry their memory.
We seek justice through truth.
And we commit to rebuilding the languages, songs, and ceremonies once stolen.

At SAVIS, we are proud to support Grandmother’s Voice and their work in honouring Indigenous children, uplifting Survivors, and carrying forward truth and reconciliation. To see the entire "Remember the Children" campaign, visit Grandmother's Voice on social media Grandmother's Voice


09/21/2025

Last week, our community showed up with courage, energy, and love — filling the streets with voices that cannot be silenced. Every step we took was a reminder that survivors are not alone and that change is possible when we come together. Side by side, we took back the streets and made our voices heard!

Thank you to everyone who marched with us, and to those supporting from afar. Your presence, passion, and solidarity uphold this movement. Together, we are reclaiming space, demanding justice, and walking toward a future free from gender-based violence. ✨✊💜

Address

1515 Rebecca Street
Oakville, ON
L6L5G8

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 9am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 9am - 4:30pm
Thursday 9am - 4:30pm
Friday 9am - 4:30pm

Telephone

+19058253622

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